Movies
Paramount Pictures Punching Up ‘Paranormal’ Director’s ‘Area 51’
Bloody Disgusting is being told that director/actor Chris Denham has been hired to do some rewrites on Area 51, Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli’s sophomore effort that will also go back behind cameras to shoot some addition footage.
The film, which stars Reid Warner, Darrin Bragg, and Ben Rovner, employs the “found footage” narrative structure that Peli used in Paranormal Activity to tell the story of three teens whose curiosity leads them to the notorious Area 51 portion of Nellis Air Force Base in the Nevada desert.
As we always like to remind readers, additional photography isn’t always a negative. Many times it’s to add more gore, an intense scene, or to just string together the story a bit more. Paramount also had Super 8 on their release schedule, so it seemed kind of odd to release two similar themed (yet completely polar opposite in budgetary costs) films in the same quarter. I personally cannot wait to see what Peli’s second directorial effort produces.
Since the release of Paranormal, Peli has also produced Insidious and Rob Zombie’s forthcoming The Lords of Salem. He is also the creator/producer on ABC’s forthcoming pilot “The River”. Big stuff!
In a recent interview, filmmaker Christopher Nolan explained that he’s always been interested in directing a bona fide horror movie, with the award-winning director going so far as to praise genre creators for their continued risk-taking on the big screen.
If you’ve seen Nolan’s recently released The Odyssey, you’re likely aware that a scary movie helmed by the legendary director could be a very good idea.
After all, Nolan insisted on making use of old-fashioned movie magic and in-camera practical effects when shooting his adaptation of Homer’s epic. This retro approach made Odysseus’ encounters with mythological beings such as the giant cyclops that much more terrifying. By now, fans are undoubtedly aware that the massive creature was partially brought to life by an enormous puppet enhanced with near-invisible CGI, but there were also plenty of forced perspective shots where actor Bill Irwin actually chomped on disturbingly realistic replicas of Ithican soldiers.
As you can see in the below behind-the-scenes test footage shared by the Los Angeles-based Hamer FX, Irwin was given an assortment of latex dolls filled with fake blood and breakable skeletons that he could tear apart on camera. The darkness of Polyphemus’ cave covers up most of the gore in the finished film, but the moment remains a terrifying highlight in a movie that has a lot to say about the horrors of war.
Nolan actually requested these tiny edible soldiers for the flick because his vision for the iconic cyclops encounter was partially inspired by Francisco Goya’s disturbing mural of Saturn Devouring His Son. This mysterious piece is actually one of the artist’s infamous “Black Paintings,” which were found painted directly onto the walls of his old house near Madrid before a French baron ordered that the collection be transferred to canvas and assigned names for public viewing.
Details like these are what make me think that Nolan could pull off a genuinely scary horror picture if he came across the right idea. That being said, between the Fear Gas sequences in Batman Begins and Circe using body horror magic to transform men into pigs in The Odyssey, one might argue that he’s been preparing for such a task throughout his entire career.
The Odyssey is currently playing in theaters everywhere, though it’s definitely worth seeking out an IMAX screening if you can find one near you.
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